Since then, Nemo is my file manager, and I would like to keep it that way, but my desktop icons are gone when I boot up and only reappear after logging out and back in. I can't even draw the highlighting rectangle on the desktop before that.

So I went to the googles, and they told me to enable "have file manager handle the desktop" under Cinnamon settings > Desktop, but there is no such option. All I get are the options to display Computer, Home, Network, Trash and mounted drives.

If you don't mind using Nemo instead of Nautilus, uninstalling Nautilus via software manager after changing the default file manager to Nemo fixed it for me. Apparently the two programs are having a war over who gets to handle the desktop.

As a follow-up to my previous post...this was also happening on my home LM system (Maya). I fixed this by using dconf-editor org->nemo->desktop and deselecting everything. Then went to org->gnome->nautilus->desktop and deselected everything there as well. Then I double checked in Cinnamon Settings -> Desktop to ensure everything was unchecked. After doing so, I rebooted, when back into dconf org->nemo->desktop and reset everything to my liking and voila, my desktop icons where back.

YMMV especially given this is a bug, but this worked for me. The suggestion to uninstall, as previously mentioned, rendered my desktop/gui session unusable as in not rendering.

netjammr wrote:As a follow-up to my previous post...this was also happening on my home LM system (Maya). I fixed this by using dconf-editor org->nemo->desktop and deselecting everything. Then went to org->gnome->nautilus->desktop and deselected everything there as well. Then I double checked in Cinnamon Settings -> Desktop to ensure everything was unchecked. After doing so, I rebooted, when back into dconf org->nemo->desktop and reset everything to my liking and voila, my desktop icons where back.

Thank you netjammr
This also worked for me in Mint 14 Cinnamon.
For good measure, when checking the boxes in dconf org->nemo->desktop, I also clicked on "Set to default" on bottom right corner of screen.

Thank you netjammr
This also worked for me in Mint 14 Cinnamon.
For good measure, when checking the boxes in dconf org->nemo->desktop, I also clicked on "Set to default" on bottom right corner of screen.

Noooooo .... after starting up a couple of times, they've disappeared again

Update to my post above:
I still haven't uninstalled Nautilus, but am trying the following settings:

In dconf-editor:

org.nemo.desktop - check computer-icon-visible - Set to Default and home-icon-visible - Set to Default

org.gnome.nautilus.desktop - uncheck all boxes

org.gnome.desktop.background - check show-desktop-icons
I noticed that the default is false, and I couldn't click "Set to Default" - it was greyed out
So I edited this file as root:/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/org.gnome.desktop.background.gschema.xml
In this section at bottom of file - changed the <default> line from false to true and saved the file:

I have done (another) full install of LM14 Cinnamon on a usb flashdrive (the original, problematic full install is on a flashdrive as well).

I have kept the new install pretty much default - themes, icons etc.
It is fully updated.
There has been no problem at all so far with the desktop icons - they have shown up every boot
I didn't change any of the settings/files as I did in the post above - it just works as it should in this new install.

The original install was the RC of LM14 Cinnamon, which was just updated -
I wonder if that might have been the problem or contributed to it?
Or if messing around with themes or icons has been the problem.

BTW - the original install on flashdrive is still having problems - sometimes it boots up properly.
Sometimes, it doesn't even get to the desktop after logging in - black screen or just the wallpaper with no icons or panel!!!!
if I Ctrl+Alt+Backspace and log in again, the icons will then appear more often than not.